Films & Schedules
- MANAKAMANA

MANAKAMANA

DIRECTOR: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez - NEPAL

“Spray and Velez’s (literally) transporting film—shot inside a cable car that carries pilgrims and tourists to and from a mountaintop temple in Nepal—is radically simple in conception. Each of its 11 shots lasts as long as a one-way ride, which corresponds to the duration of a roll of 16mm film. This newest work from Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab—which previously produced Sweetgrass (PIFF 32) and Leviathan (PIFF 36)—is thrillingly mysterious in its effects: a staged documentary, a cross between science fiction and ethnography, an airborne version of an Andy Warhol screen test. As with the richest structural films, Manakamana is a kind of head movie that viewers are invited to complete as they watch. An endlessly suggestive film that both describes and transcends the bounds of time and space.”—New York Film Festival. (118 mins.)